everyone screws up once in a while...

When I was a kid I had a sea flea kit boat about 12 feet long with a 9 horse outboard on it. I thought I,d be cool and installed a steering wheel with cables from another boat. On the maiden voyage I put it wide open turned the wheel to the right and promptly turned left into a rock pile.I had incorrectly installed the cables....

 

Years ago, in my dad's Auto Repair Business, he had a kid working for him in exchange for some labor that was being done on his car. Well, dad told this kid to go "Jack that car up and rotate the tires."

Dude goes over, jacks the car up, spins the tire, lets it back down, and asks "Now what?"

 

I seem to remember hammering a bracket straight that was "bent". How'd this bracket get bent?...I'll just straighten 'er out...good thing I noticed it! You guessed it...that bend was there for a reason. Hahahahahaha! Back to the vise and hammer.

 

Rebuilt the Rochester 4brrl carb on a my '75 Chevy 454 pickup. It was dark by the time I re-installed it in the parking-lot of the apartment-complex. Had no trouble-light...depended on the parking-lot lights to barely see. Got the carb on "fine". Before I hooked up the throttle-linkage, I decided to test it. Jumped in the truck, cranked the motor over............and ****!...........Fire! Got the fire put out, and gave up for the night thinking I had screwed up the rebuild. Took a look in the morning, and realized I had installed the carb backwards, with a large portion of the plenum not covered. Don't work in the dark.

 

I'm on a roll here. Three is my limit though...don't want to show you guys up!
OK, it's 1975...I'm 18. Got a 1964 Mercury Comet with a sweet-running 289 and an automatic trans, for $300 bucks. The ****** was bad though. Was driving a POS 1963 Dodge Dart at the time. One night, the Dodge got vandalized bad. Had to quick fix the Comet to get to work. Bought a trans, and installed it. I remember having to do some kind of adapting of the coolant-lines and modulator vacuum line. Got it all hooked up, and took 'er for a test drive. It went down the road great, but OMG!!! I was layin' down a smoke-screen like you've never seen! Still without a car, I lost my job and freakin' joined the Army. Sold the Comet for $80. Years later, Im thinking that I connected the modulator vac line to the intake! Sheeeeet! That series of events basically screwed my young life. Hey...that wasn't too funny, was it. Now I'm depressed.

 

"Years later, Im thinking that I connected the modulator vac line to the intake! Sheeeeet!" Don,t be too hard on yourself...it,s supposed to be there. Likely problem was a bad modulator allowing the trans fluid through the diaphram and subsquently getting ****ed into the engine.

 

After ***embling a motor, right there on the workbench was an oil ring expander. Guess which one it was.

 

29 nash it was the last one out right.

 

been there done that with a nova 327, luck would have it that the guy that was helping me had a new front sump pump changed the pickup and was good to go

 

the first SBC motor I rebuilt ( just rings and gaskets) I broke the plastic sleeve that holds the oil pump shaft to the pump so I had a friend go get me a new one, While he was gone I put the old cam and lifters in I made sure that I kept the lifters with the right cam lobes. When he got back I wanted to get the bottom end ****oned up. I grab the engine and turn it upside down and all the lifters fall to the floor. Took it as a sign and did a complete rebuild with new cam n lifters.

 

19 years old doing an engine swap on my '50 GMC
bee flew in front of my face
did a reflex swing at it
with a ratchet in my hand
the socket flew off and put a big ding in the windshield
right square in front of the drivers seat

 

I found 2 shop rags laying in the valley underneath the intake manifold of a Mustang I bought once. It was a built 306 with a Vortech supercharger. I was pulling off all the aftermarket parts and getting it ready to re-sell. I'm sure whoever built the engine had them laying on there to keep dirt out of the new motor and forgot to take'm out..

 

I replaced a cracked head on my 69 El Camino(sbc) and got it all back together about
11pm one night. While filling the radiator prior to starting it up, I heard the sound of
trickling water from the back of the engine.
While feeling between the back of the p***. side head and the firewall trying to find
the leak, I felt a small braided ground strap on the firewall had flopped between the head and the head gasket before I torqued the head down!
Remove it all again. Bedtime 3 am.

 

All night thrash to put my blown bronco motor together for mud bog the next day. ran great at the bog. Next day on the way to work it gets real hot and then the temp drops after ten min long story short replaced almost everything. termostat in backwards felt like a *****.

 

Swapped a electronic dist. for a point's dist. that I got from a guy I just met. Timed the engine and started it and went to smoke the tires and "****" died in the street. Totally imbar***ing with a group watching. Checked it all out again, and the timming was off, thought what the heck? Retimed, fired it went to get on it again "****"! WTF I thought. Grabbed the rotor and gear and twisted them, and they went around. I thought hmmmmm, knocked the roll-pin out, thinking it was sheared, nope it wasn't a roll-pin, it was a peice of wound up aluminum beer can! Can you say bud-a$$-hole? Never bought any more part's from that guy.........

 

First car at age 15 was a '64 Impala 2dr HT with a 327 with a powerglide.Read the owners manual and somewhere it said something about not shifting from drive into low and accelerating above 45 mph.I got on the country road running past the house and accelerated to about 43-44 according to the speedo then pulled the shift lever down and stood on the gas.....and exploded the 'glide into a million pieces.
Age 17 I was given a 1971 Pontiac Grandville station wagon that sat abandoned on a side yard.Got it hauled to the gas station I was working at and tried to get it running.Installed all new plugs,wires,cap and rotor but no joy.Spun over like crazy but no fire.WTF? Spent a hour trying to get the beastly 455 to even cough but still nothing.Finally the owner walks over and asks "put any gas in it?" Fired off and purred like a kitten with some fuel.I can still picture him laughing 33 years later.

 

ha! ive done the no gas trick too, makes you feel real good when a bunch of your wrenchin buddies are hangin around...

or on the hay bailer in the middle of the field and your grandfather is watchin ya...i hate a wisconson twin to this day

 

Yep. How'd you guess.

about the old trick, (put the lifters in, then turn motor over on the stand, they fall out). Me too. I'm getting real good, when the first one falls, I recognize the sound and turn it back real quick, usually only loose a couple...................LOL!

or, the one where the seal for the old oil filter stays stuck to the flange when I took it off. Crank it up, no leaks. Of course two seals in a stack don't hold very long................ So then as I'm driving it out of the garage the oil pressure drops off, BIG ***ED leak all over the driveway. I only did that one once, it was in 1976...........

 

Two weeks ago I finally found a good gas tank for my 55 Plymouth. Spent thirty minutes removing it from the donor car and was so happy to have it that I picked it up on to my shoulder to carry out. Did i mention you should always check to see if there is gas in a tank before you pick it up. I drenched my legs and stomach with about five gallons of some real nasty smelling old gas. It was about 40 degrees outside but i drove home with all the windows open.
When i was a teenager my neighbor who was a self appointed genius mechanic was changing the oil in his mom's Buick estate wagon when he realized he had no oil. He hopped in the wagon saying I will be right back and drove off. When he left the driveway I noticed the pan sitting there with the old oil in it. He made it about three blocks and then came walking home. He never did want to talk about that day again. Neither did his dad.

 

Was trying to put on 153 tooth starter on a 350 SBC at machine shop reaching under. Finally gave up and rolled engine over to see only drilled for 168 tooth. Machinist said it was a truck 350. Drilled another hole, but first 350 I had seen like that.

 

Funny, to the OP, my dad decided to put my Dominator back on my race car for me, after a rebuild, when I wasn't home. Determined he'd left the rag in the intake after it "didn't run so good" when he backed it out of the garage after he was finished. D'oh!

 

i was 18 years old and figured loc***e would be cheaper than mag locking lug on my 60' chevy. we cut the first 3 wheels off and the guy helping me remove the wheels made the statement "how did you manage to cross thread all the lugnuts?" i responded "i didn't cross thread them i used loc***e!" his eyes got huge then not saying a word walked over fired up the torch to heat up the remaining 5 lugnuts, PING! after some heat was applied and they came right off. his reply was "i wish i would have busted your balls 2 hours sooner!" i will admit to this day that PING when loc***e releases is so warm!

 

On my first tune up (51 Plymouth) I pulled all six spark plug wires at the same time.

 

Trying to force an oilpump srceen off of a Ford tractor oilpump and thought what a bummer it would be if I slipped and ran my hand down the sharp edge of the pick-up just as I did exactly that. Got four stiches for that one.

 

back in the early days, changed a 283 for a 350. It was an auto. ****oned up the whole engine, everything under the hood. went to bolt up the torque converter and noticed the 3 holes did not line up. Found out older flex plates were only drilled with 3 holes, not 6, like nowadays.. I will always look at the flywheel before installing again.

another time, smarter now, ya right. I was moving, and the trans in my truck, pucked right in the yard...all loaded and ready to move. So I jack it up and grab another trans, had lots in stock, grabbed the flexplate.. Yes I checked for the 6 holes. bolted it all up. fired it up and it was, all of a sudden running rough, but, what the hell, we gotta get going. about 2 hrs. down the road, the trans brakes in half....moral of the story, 454's have different flexplates than 350's. grabbed the wrong one.. I will remember for ever, I hope. My one and only big block Chev.

 

the most basic of mistakes...i was refilling oil after a change, looked down after the 4th quart to see why my shoe was getting slippery.

another time, torqued down the clutch pressure plate with intricate detail. placed the torque wrench back in the drawer, turned around and spotted the disc and pilot tool sitting on the bench.

 

I was in a bit of a hurry once replacing rear brake shoes on a '68 Dodge D100 pickup. Had the drums turned already, so I was in the process of replacing the right side rear brakes. Put both primary shoes on one side and didn't realize it until I had the secondary shoes on the other side. I looked at that and thought "geez, you dumb***!" Went to the right side, fixed the problem, and then ***embled the left side. Correctly, this time!

 

Just finished rebuilding the Ford 300 six in my signature. Got it back in the truck, all hooked up and ready to go. I Fired it up for the first time and real quickly realized that I forgot to reinstall the oil pressure sender. Blew 6 quarts of fresh oil all over the inner fender in about 2.3 seconds.